2001 Barbaresco Asili

After tasting hundreds of wines over the week, it was nice to spend some time with a few bottles and my closest inner circle, watch a little NFL football and forget about all the stresses of 2020, even if for just a little while.

This wine was tasted among Piedmont Icons at Del Posto in Novermber 2013.

This is a fabulous set of wines from one of the great Giacosa vintages. Admittedly, opening ten year-old Giacosa Barbareschi and Baroli must be viewed as a purely academic excercise, as the wines are nowhere near ready. Readers will have to be especially patient, as most of these wines have entered a closed phase after having been surprisingly accessible early on.

This wine was tasted over dinner at Bar Boulud in New York City, Oct 2010.

Bruno Giacosa has been responsible for many of the most memorable Barolos and Barbarescos I have enjoyed through the years, so I was thrilled to be able to taste with him again in September. After all, Giacosa had suffered a stroke in early 2006, but he was slowly on the mend in September and was quite excited to show and discuss his young 2004s. He described this vintage as great, having produced elegant, structured wines with superb fruit, especially in Barolo. He added that he never expected the 2003s to be outstanding but that they have turned out to be "very good," even if there was a lot of stress on sandier sites in Barbaresco. Two thousand five, he went on, is a good normal crop of wines, from a summer that was "not great. " My tasting with Giacosa, his daughter Bruna and long-time enologist Dante Scaglione once again turned up some epic bottles that remained in my mind, if not on my palate, through my entire stay in the region. I tasted on a warm day in a room with a broken air-conditioner, but Giacosa's Barolos and Barbarescos have a way of focusing the mind and body.

Although Bruno Giacosa is a shy, introspective man, he has always been available for at least a quick “hello,” so my most recent visit to the estate was poignant as it was the first time in several years Giacosa wasn't on the property. I know I am joined by admirers around the world in wishing him a speedy recovery from his recent health issues. In the meantime, I am confident that the winery is in good hands with long-time oenologist Dante Scaglione, a man who has dedicated the bulk of his career to the family and the estate. With his 2000s but even more so his 2001s, Giacosa has really reached stratospheric levels. Readers who are looking for wines that are relatively accessible and offer super-ripe, sweet fruit will love the 2000s, while those who prefer wines with more aromatic complexity and nuance will likely gravitate towards the 2001s. In 2000 I believe Giacosa was more successful with his Barbarescos than with his Barolos. As for the 2001s...well, they are awesome across the board. The wines have much of the ripeness and sweet fruit of the 2000s, but with more explosiveness, complexity, depth, freshness as well as silky, elegant tannins that give the wines a sense of total balance and harmony. These are very complete wines to marvel over. In 2003 the only Barbaresco that has been bottled is the Asili. Like many of their colleagues Giacosa and Scaglione have been positively surprised with how well that wine has developed over the past few years.

For Bruno Giacosa vintage 1999 was more successful in Barolo rather than Barbaresco, where climactic conditions proved to be very challenging. “Our Barbaresco vineyards got hit by hail four times in 1999,” explains long-time enologist Dante Scaglione. “The most severe hailstorm came in August, so at least in some places the vines had time to recover before the harvest, but nevertheless it was a difficult vintage.” In Rabajà the damage was so extensive that a wine from this plot was not released. In Asili the conditions were less severe, although the wine does show the effects of the compromised fruit in its evolving color and flavors. Santo Stefano was also a victim of hail but seems to have been less adversely affected. Fortunately weather conditions were much more favorable in Barolo where Giacosa produced three excellent Barolos in 1999. The estate's Barolo normale comes from the youngest vines in the Falletto vineyard, where the plants average 6-7 years in age. “When Nebbiolo vines are young they tend to produce slightly bitter, astringent tannins. Even though we prune the vines and green harvest, those plants simply aren't old enough to be used for the more important Barolos, so they go into the normale,” says Scaglione. These younger vines tend to be planted in spots that have a southwest orientation, meaning they receive mostly the afternoon sun, as opposed to the more south-facing center portion of the vineyard which is used for the Barolos Falletto and Le Rocche del Falletto. Le Rocche del Falletto, made from the heart of the vineyard, is a “cru within a cru” and is one of Barolo's most legendary wines. It is here that the vines have the best exposure. Although the older age of the plants gives naturally low yields, Giacosa has historically preferred to maintain a more moderate approach to crop-thinning and his yields have never been among the lowest in the region. The discussion around Red Label Riservas and White Label Non-Riservas is always a hot topic of conversation. “To be honest, like many people we got a little carried away with the enthusiasm surrounding vintage 2000,” says Scaglione. “We already had plans for a Red Label Santo Stefano (the 1998) and Red Label Barolo (the 2000 Le Rocche del Falletto) and we probably overlooked the 1999 Le Rocche del Falletto. To me it was always a wine worthy of the Red Label. I think of it as a slightly lesser version of the 1996 Riserva Falletto (Red Label), and very much in the same mold stylistically.” [Editors Note: The 1996 Riserva Falletto was made from the plot now known as Le Rocche del Falletto.] Many observers have noted that Giacosa's wines have become more approachable over the last few years. This is no doubt due to several factors, including warmer vintages (1997, 1998, 2000) and the replacement of many of the estates older barrels beginning in 1997. His 1999 Barolos, however, are a throwback to a more traditional style and will appeal to those who appreciate classically structured wines. I left my bottles of the 1999 Barolos Falletto and Le Rocche del Falletto open for days and the wines were still outstanding nearly a week after having been opened. “The growing season was quite favorable,” says Scaglione. “Summer was hot although it never got too hot, and into the fall we had the cool nights which are so essential for Nebbiolo. We did about 12-15 days fermentation after which the wines completed their malolactic fermentations, mostly in steel. The malos were finished largely by the end of the year, with a few barrels taking until January. [Editors Note: In 2004 the malos went well into the following spring.] We had good acidity after the malos, ranging from 5.5% to 6%, compared to the roughly 5% we had in vintages like 1997, 2000 and 2003. The wines then went into large barrels of either 55 to 110 hectoliters where they completed their aging for roughly 30 months for the Barbarescos, 32 months for the Barolo normale and 36 months for the Barolos Falletto and Le Rocche del Falletto.”